Chaos Theory?

Question

I've heard this theory mentioned in the movie Jurassic Park and in the book. I've tried to research the non-linear equation but it's rather difficult. Can anyone put the explanation into terms that an algebra/geometry student could understand?

P.S.: I know it's a real theory and I know the gist of it is that you cannot control a system. I don't quite understand how the theory works though.

Answer 1

The background is , as you rightly say , very technical in the mathematical sense. It starts with developments in Differential geometry ( Marsden Morse) , leading to the catastrophy theory of Renee Thom. Essentially if you have a 'smooth' function ( i.e. differentiable several times ) such as ax^i+by^j+cz^k=0 , then this is actually a prototype for a whole range of functions if you vary a,b and c.if you , perversly , analyse the functions with respect to the a,b and c , there are often areas where a sudden discontinuity occurs.so , for instance your equation may have a solution for x where a=5 say. if you change a to 5.000001 , then the solution for x is suddenly very different. A way to picture this is to look at the situation where the equation is that of a Corkscrew. for a given x and z , there are many values of y which fit the equation(one for each turn of the screw). I could go on here but hopefully this is enough to get you started.Thanks for the question.

Answer 2

Logic "tells" us that if you have a method that produces a result from an input, and you change the input only slightly, the outcome will only change slightly. What Chaos theory tells us is that in actuallity, there are situations where no matter how small of an interval around an input you choose, you can find a value that will give an output that is way off.

I'll try and write up an exaple of such a chaotic funtion. It will take a bit to write and explain clearly.

Answer 3

I love chaos! Anyhow, take a linear system. Like a spring. Push the spring, it pushes back with the same force. If it is nonlinear, it may push back some then push sideways some. If its chaotic, it may push back and sideways just as you touch it.

If you find this stuff interesting, I would encourage you to continue on in mathematics to partial differential equations. There you will find a whole new world of fun, and chaos raises it ugly head quite often!

The link is a quick online lay course on Chaos Theory, pretty fun.

Answer 4

It sounds very parralleled to the system of anarchy, which is a group of people revolting against a society or set of rules put forth by a govnment, and it is sometimes very difficult to control this type of system depending on how large the movement becomes .

Answer 5

this is a theory which says the world around us is more complicated than whatever we think
ir talks about the relation between chaos & order
for example it says that if a little butterfly moves its wings the effect off that can make a whirwind in another place even 10000km s far from it

Answer 6

Humm if you got it from a movie lol no way you going to get it right. Those people just sell movies lol they are not educated lmao.

Answer 7

This might help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory